Blowin' in the wind

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, May 7, 1997

1997-05-07 04:00:00 PDT FLORIDA -- COMMON SENSE suggests that people who engage in activities they know are dangerous have only themselves to blame if the consequences are harmful.

That's essentially what R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company argued in a Florida lawsuit, and what the jury bought in refusing to order damages to the family of a woman who smoked for 34 years and died of lung cancer.

We'd buy that argument, too - except for a few cold facts: From 1961-1995, when Connor smoked Reynolds' Salem cigarettes, tobacco companies did everything in their power to convince consumers that smoking wasn't hazardous. They lied, they cheated and they concealed. They pretended cigarettes weren't addictive. They made being a smoker seem glamorous and desirable, and they denied that smoking caused cancer or other murderous diseases.

Government comes in for blame, too. Always during Connor's lifetime of smoking, cigarettes were legal. They were never regulated as a drug. Tobacco subsidies continued. Government couldn't get up the gumption to act.

It's true that during most of Jean Connor's smoking career, cigarette packs carried warning labels from the surgeon general. But against the avalanche of pro-smoking propaganda, the warnings were like smoke in the wind. During Connor's life there were research studies that showed smoking could kill, but spokesmen for the tobacco industry disputed their accuracy and waved conflicting evidence.

Jean Connor was 49 when she died. That means she started the habit when she was 15. Tobacco companies claim they don't target children as new customers, but evidence shows that they have done so all along. They have to replace the ones who die off.

During Connor's life, tobacco companies withheld from the public information that might have discouraged potential smokers from starting and encouraged people already smoking to quit.

So, yes, we disagree with the Florida jury's verdict against Jean Connor and in favor of R.J. Reynolds earlier this week.

Jean Connor may have killed herself by choosing to smoke, but her death was aided and abetted by an industry that didn't mind corpses piling up as long as they were replaced by fresh, young smokers.

The tobacco industry should suffer the consequences of its own behavior.&lt;